Self-threading loom-shuttle.



PATENTED SEPT. 13, 1904.

J. NORTHROP; $ELF THREADING LOOM SHUTTLE APPLICATION FILED MAY 26 1904 NrTen STATns Patented September 1 3, 1904.

PATENT Trice. I

JONAS NORTHROP, OF HOPEDALE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO DRAPER COMPANY, OF HOPEDALE, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORA- TION OF MAINE.

SELF-THREADING LOONl-SHUTTLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 769,914, dated September 13, 1904.

Application filed May 26, 1904.

To a, 1072/0111, it Til/01y concern:

Be it known that I, JoNAs NORTHROP, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and a resident of Hopedale, county of Worcester, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Self-Threading Loom-Shuttles, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like characters on the drawings representing like parts.

Loom-shuttles adapted for use in automatic filling-replenishing looms of the type wherein the running-shuttle is furnished with a fresh supply of filling from time to time have been provided with various devices to effect the automatic threading operation, whereby the fresh filling-thread is directed to the de livery-eye of the shuttle. These threading devices are so constructed as to first cause the introduction of the filling-thread into a longitudinal thread-passage, and thence the thread is directed by a horn, as it is technically termed, into the deliveryeye, various arrangements being employed to prevent subsequent unthreading of the shuttle. As a general thing the introduction of the thread to the thread-passage is effected on the first shot of the shuttle following replenishment, and on the return shot the thread is directed into the delivery-eye, completing the threading; but if the second part of such operation fails for any reason the threading will not be completed and the thread either breaks at once on the second shot of the shuttle after replenishment or draws completely out of the threading device and breaks. This necessitates another operation of the replenishing mechanism of the loom, and the previouslyinserted supply of filling is ejected from the shuttle, a fresh supply being inserted,and the threading operation is repeated with its thread. Manifestly this calls for undue action on the part of the replenishing mechanism, delays the weaving temporarily, and ejects filling-carriers that are fully supplied with filling. In United StatesPatent No. 718,575,

dated January 13, 1903, Ihave shown a shuttle provided with what is termed a leader,

Serial No. 209.830- (No model.)

through which the thread draws to be delivered, means being provided to open the leader to receive the thread end of the fresh fillingsupply when inserted in the shuttle and to thereafter close the leader, so that it is immaterial whether the thread is directed to the delivery-eye of the shuttle,as proper delivery of the thread will be made from the leader for an indefinite number of picks without affecting the proper operation of the loom. Such a shuttle can, however, be used only in a loom provided with means to properly govern the opening and closing of the leader, while in the automatically-self-threading shuttles first mentioned the threading device is carried wholly by the shuttle.

My present invention has for its object the production of means whereby the threading of the shuttle is effected by or through devices on the shuttle, yet so constructed and arranged that thread-delivery may be effected even if the thread fails to be directed to the delivery-eye of the shuttle.

It will be apparent hereinafter that I have in my present invention embodied the feature of a leader of a nature similar to that shown in the patent referred to, while retaining the general characteristics of self-threading devicesmounted wholly upon or carried by the shuttle itself. I thus combine in one structure the advantageous features of both types of threading structures, while eliminating features which are to some extent objectionable in each.

The various novel features of my invention will be fully described in the subjoined specification and particularly pointed out in the following claims.

Figure 1 is a top or plan view centrally broken out of a shuttle embodying my present invention. Fig. 2 is an enlarged perspective View of the threading end of the shuttle, showing the delivery eye of the latter. Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view on theline 3 3, Fig. 1, looking toward the right. Fig. 4 is a partial longitudinal sectional View through the threading device, taken on a line through the center of the thread-passage. Fig. 5 is a front elevation of the threading block re moved, and Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the same lookingdown.

The shuttle-body A, open at top and bottom, is provided with suitable jaws A. Fig. 1, to receive and grasp the head of a filling-carrier B. the shuttle-body having a side deliveryeye a Fig. 2, and being cut out longitudinally beyond the tip or delivery end of the filling-carrier to receive the threading device. The threading device or block, preferably made of metal, comprises a base portion 1, having upturned sides 2 3 and with a tubular thread-passage 4:, located in the base of the block between the sides thereof, said passage having an elongated slit or inlet 5 in its top. Above the inlet-passage the side 3 of the block is longitudinally concaved, as at 6, to form one side wall of a vestibule 7, superposed upon or located above the thread-passage, at the inner end thereof, the opposite side 6 of the vestibule being also curved and formed in the wall 2, the top of the vestibule being completed by an elongated guard 8, which overhangs the inlet 5 and closely approaches the side 3 of the block to leave a slot-like thread-entrance 9. Referring to Figs. 1, 2, and 6, the front edge of the guard is concaved and preferably rounded at 10 and terminated in a forwardly-prolonged finger 11 adjacent the thread-entrance 9 at the front 1 end thereof, and by reference to Figs. 1 and 6 it will be seen that the finger is laterally offset from the inlet 5 of the thread-passage. The side wall 2 of the block is inclined to constitute a horn 12 (shown only in Fig. 5) and of itself forming no new part of my present invention, the horn having an enlarged and substantially triangular head 13, the tip or point of the head being prolonged to form a rearwardly-curved beak 14, which extends above and across the front open end of the thread-passage, this beak being shown partly in dotted lines in Figs. 1 and 6. The opposite side wall of the block is laterally extended to form a shield 15, which overlaps and projects beyond the beak, the inner edge 16 of the shield extending diagonally rearwardly to the front end of the thread-entrance 9, the finger 11 approaching very closely to the rear end of such edge 16. As shown in Fig. 2, the top of the finger is downwardly curved, and the upper face of the guard 8 is also beveled or inclined from its outer side downwardly to the thread-entrance 9, the top of the wall 3 being also inclined, as shown at 17 in Figs. 2 and 6, so as to make a flaring or trough-like approach to such entrance. Back of the point of the beak 14 the shield is shaped to present a depending rib or projection 18 for a purpose to be described. As shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 6, the top of the block is rounded or chamfered off in an easy curve between the concaved edge 10 of the guard and the beak, making a pear-shaped or oval opening above the forward end of the thread-passage 4c.

In the threading operation when the fillingcarrier has been inserted in the shuttle the filling end t, Fig. 1, leading from the tip or jaw end of the filling-carrier, will be held beyond the end of the shuttle by a portion of the fillingfeederas shown, for instance, in United States Patent No. 529,940and as the shuttle is shot across the loom the thread is drawn down between the inclined face 17 and the top of the guard 8 into the thread-entrance 9, and it passes underneath the finger 11 and draws over the diagonal edge of the shield and across the top of the latter, substantially as shown in the full lines, Fig. 1. Ordinarily as the shuttle moves farther away from thereplenishing side of the loom the thread will be drawn down underneath the shield, the diagonal edge 16 serving to shed the thread. Passing underneath the shield, the thread is drawn around and under the beak 14. On the return shot of the shuttle the thread will then be drawn under the head 13 and around the horn 12, down into the delivery-eye a and the shuttle will be completely threaded. When so threaded, (it being understood that two shots of the shuttle are necessary to complete the threading,') the removal of the thread from the delivery-eye is prevented by the cooperation of the shield and beak in a manner similar to that shown and described in United States Patent No. 726,977, granted to me May 5, 1903. If, however, the thread should fail to be drawn beneath the shield and under the beak on the first shot of the shuttle after replenishment, the thread will still be delivered properly from the shuttle, and it may be so delivered for an indefinite number of picks without at all entering thedelivery-eye of the shuttle. After the thread has been drawn through the entrance-slot 9 and into the vestibule 7 it passes under the guard 8 manifestly and beneath the finger 11, and then the thread can draw off in the dotted-line direction if if the shuttle is moving to the left, or in the direction of the dotted line 6 Fig. 1, when the shuttle is moving to the right, the thread at such time drawing around or over the curved front edge 10 of the guard and more or less over the chamfered side 19 of the opening in the top of the shuttle-body. The finger prevents the thread from being withdrawn from the vestibule after it has once passed thereinto, and the finger and curved front edge of the guard constitute a species of leader.

The term leader is used to indicate such a device as will enable the thread to draw off properly to be delivered independently of the delivery-eye of the shuttle. Under ordinary circumstances the delivery of the thread from such leader would probably not continue for more than three or four picks at the most, as

sooner or later the thread would be drawn down beneath the beak on one of the shots of the shuttle away from the replenishing side of the loom; but it will be manifest that the delivery from the leader can continue indefinitely without affecting the proper operation of the loom. The depending ridge or projection 18 back of the point of the beak assists the shield and beak in preventing any release of the thread by twisting or kinking after such thread has once been drawn underneath the beak.

When the thread is drawn down into the vestibule, its entrance into the thread-passage 4 is effected through the narrow inlet or slit 5, and once in the latter the rotative movement of the thread as it is drawn from the filling-carrier will prevent any withdrawal through the inlet.

The threading-block is secured in place in the shuttle by a transverse screw 20, Figs. 2 and 4, in well-known manner, and at the in ner end of the block a seat 21 is shown adapted to receive a piece of felt 22 to act as a tension device for the thread.

So far as I am aware it is broadly new to provide a threading device of the character hereinbefore specified with a fixed leader from which the filling-thread may draw uninterruptedly and independently of the deliveryeye of the shuttle without affecting the proper operation of the loom. My invention aeeordingly is not restricted to the precise construction and arrangement herein shown, as the same may be modified or changed in various particulars without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a loom-shuttle having a delivery-eye and adapted to contain a supply of filling, a self-threading device provided with a longitudinal thread-passage having at its inner end an elongated, narrow inlet, and means to automatically direct the filling-thread through the inlet into the thread-passage and thence to the delivery-eye of the shuttle, said means including a fixed member adjacent and above the inlet to prevent disengagement of the filling-thread from the directing means, and also serving as an auxiliary device from which the thread may draw directly to be delivered.

2. In a loom-shuttle having a delivery-eye and adapted to contain a supply of filling, a self-threading device provided with a tubular, longitudinal thread-passage having a narrow inlet at its top and means to automatically direct the filling-thread through the inlet into the thread-passage and thence to the shuttle delivery-eye, said means including a fixed guard overhanging the inner end of the inlet and having a concaved forward edge crossing the same, to prevent disengagement of the filling-thread from the directing means and also serving as an auxiliary device from which the thread may draw directly to be delivered.

ing means while its concaved edge and the finger form a guide around which the thread may draw directly to be delivered therefrom independently of the shuttle delivery-eye.

4. In an automatically-self-threading shuttle having a side delivery-eye, a longitudinal tubular thread-passage having a narrow inlet in its top, a vestibule above the inner end of the passage and having a slot-like thread-entrance at one side of and above the inlet, the top of the vestibule constituting a guard and having a forwardly-extended finger adjacent the thread-entrance, a horn having a rearwardlycurved beak overhanging the front open end of the thread-passage, and a lateral shield overlapping the beak, the latter and the shield directing the filling-thread around the born to the shuttle delivery-eye, the guard and finger preventing Withdrawal of the filling-thread from the vestibule and also constituting means from which the thread may draw directly to be delivered upon its failure to pass to the delivery-eye.

5. In an automatically-self-threading shuttle adapted to receive a supply of filling and having a side delivery-eye and a longitudinal thread-passage provided with anarrow, elongated inlet in its top, means to direct the filling-thread through the inlet into the passage and thence to the delivery-eye and thereafter prevent removal of the thread therefrom, said means including a transverse guard extended over the inlet and. having its front edge concaved and prolonged forwardly to form a finger oflset from said inlet, whereby the fillingthread may draw off around the concaved portion of the guard to be delivered independently of the delivery-eye upon failure of the thread to enter the eye. V

6. In an automatically-self-threadingloomshuttle adapted to contain a supply of filling and having a delivery-eye, in combination, means to automatically direct the filling-thread from the supply to the said eye, said means including a longitudinal thread-passage and a fixed, open leader at the inner end thereof around which the thread may draw to be delivered, the leader having a concaved front edge extended transversely across the threadpassage and terminating in a forwardly-extended prolongation which serves to guide the filling end beneath the leader and also prevents its subsequent disengagement therewith.

7. In an automatically-self-threading loomshuttle adapted to contain a supply of filling and having a delivery-eye, a block having in its base a longitudinal, tubular thread-passage with a narrow inlet in its top, a superposed vestibule formed by a transverse guard overhanging the inlet and leaving a slot-like threadentrance to the vestibule at one side of the inlet, the front edge of the guard being concaved and terminating in a forwardly-prolonged finger adjacent the slot-like entrance, a horn having a rearwardly-curved beak crossing the thread-passage at its front end, and a shield overlapping the beak, the upper face of the guard and the portion of the block adjacent the thread-entrance being inclined toward the same, to direct the filling-thread thereinto.

8. A threading-block for loom-sh uttles h aving a longitudinal thread-passage in its base provided with an inlet-slit in its top, a horn having a head terminating in a rearwardlycurved beak extending over the open front end of the thread-passage, an oppositely-extended shield overlapping and projecting at its front end beyond the beak, the inner edge of the shield extending diagonally in a rearward direction to the thread-entrance, a lateral guard overhanging the inner end of the inlet-slit and leaving a thread-entrance slot laterally offset from the inlet-slit, the front edge of the guard being concaved and terminating in a finger adjacent the thread-entrance and extended forward nearly to the rear end of the diagonal edge of the shield, the open portion of the block between the latter and the curved edge of the guard permitting the filling-thread to be drawn off around said curved edge and freely delivered.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JONAS NORTHROP.

Witnesses:

GEORGE OTIS DRAPER, ERNEST W. WooD. 

